Working to Preserve America’s Waterways (Case Study)

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CHALLENGE: During heavy rain and snow storms, the existing waste water systems in Toledo are often overtaxed. The result is an overflow of sewage and polluted storm water into the Maumee and Ottawa rivers, Swan Creek and Lake Erie beyond.

In response, the Environmental Protection Agency and the City of Toledo initiated the Toledo Waterways Initiative. One of the goals of this initiative was to create combined sewage/storm water storage basins to hold the overflow until it can be properly processed and discharged.

SOLUTION: W. R. MEADOWS worked with the Toledo office of Arcadis, an international design and engineering firm, and Koskosing Industrial, a family-owned general contractor in Westerville, Ohio, to create one of several holding tanks. W. R. MEADOWS is already at work on two more tanks in the series. This one, the Ottawa River Storage Tank, is the largest: it holds approximately 39 million gallons of overflow material, says Zach Holt, Inspector for Arcadis.

A 60-mil coating of MEADOWS’ HYDRALASTIC 836 cold-applied waterproofing is being used on the top of the tank to keep it watertight, prevent additional water infiltration from the surrounding soil, and improve structural integrity. The project is being completed in several phases due to its size and the restrictions of cold weather for pouring the concrete.

REINFORCING FABRIC HCR tape and PRECON FABRIC TAPE are used to reinforce the construction joints, says Kris Trouteaud, with Koskosing Industrial. BEM cold-applied waterproofing sealant is also being used to trim out joint areas.

This was our first time doing such a large waterproofing application, and we’d never applied HYDRALASTIC before,” Trouteaud says. “It took us a few days to understand how the HYDRALASTIC would spread—we wanted to use enough but not too much. The product went on smoothly and was easy to get out of the buckets.”

The HYDRALASTIC is being topped with a layer of PC-2 protection board to keep the installation safe from rocks, glass, and other abrasive items sometimes located in backfill soils.

 

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